Emperor Yongping raised his head and looked at the young man in front of him quietly. He did not speak immediately, but silently took out a handkerchief from his arms, covered his mouth and coughed violently.
At first, Li Mu thought this was a signal to summon the swordsman, and was startled. However, the emperor of Northern Qi coughed for a long time, and his face became flushed until several eunuchs came up to pat him on the back.
It was only then that Li Mu learned that the Emperor of Northern Qi was probably ill.
After an unknown amount of time, Emperor Yongping finally recovered. He looked up at Li Mu and said, "I have not been in court for nearly three years."
"Although you, the Li family, have been driven to the south, you are still one country after all. As the envoy of the Southern Dynasty, you are still the same country."
Emperor Yongping looked at Li Mu and asked, "Don't you even know about this?"
The Emperor of the Northern Qi Dynasty had been ill for several years, and everyone in the Chen court was very aware of this. His Majesty the Emperor was determined to make the Northern Expedition, and he also wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to see if he could take a big bite out of the Qi people.
Naturally, Li Mu knew about this matter. He lowered his head slightly and said, "We have to be careful about the credentials of the two countries. Otherwise, your majesty will not recognize it afterwards. At least the prime ministers of the Northern Dynasty and the six ministers and nine ministers should be invited to attend.
Only then can you submit your credentials.”
Emperor Yongping narrowed his eyes and looked at Li Mu: "In that case, I will ask your envoy to go back to the guild hall and wait for the news. When I have more time, I will meet someone to invite your envoy to the palace again."
Li Mu took a deep breath, cupped his hands and said, "Foreign ministers, please retire."
After that, he turned around and strode away.
Looking at Li Mu's retreating figure, Emperor Yongping coughed twice more. An old eunuch immediately came over, put another coat on the emperor, lowered his head slightly and said, "Your Majesty..."
Emperor Yongping took a deep breath and said, "Go and ask the Fourth Brother to come over. If you can find a way to find out what is written in the Southern Dynasty's credential, hand it over to me."
The old eunuch nodded immediately: "I understand."
He slowly retreated, and not long after, Wei Wang Zhao Kai carefully entered the Nuan Pavilion, then knelt down in front of his old father with a plop, and said respectfully: "My son, I pay my respects to my father!"
Emperor Yongping glanced at his son on the ground, but did not let him stand up. He just said slowly in a less loud voice: "When you came to the palace to see me yesterday, what did you say to me?"
Zhao Kai didn't understand his father's intention for a while, so he bowed his head and said: "Yesterday, I went to the palace to pay homage to my father. I told my father that the envoy from the Southern Dynasty who came to seek peace has arrived, and this envoy
, he is the son of the Jin Prince of the Southern Dynasty and the eldest son of the Jin Prince’s Palace. His status has a lot to do..."
"If we can win over this person, we might be able to provoke the Southern Dynasty clan and cause chaos in the Southern Dynasty..."
Emperor Yongping looked calm.
"I just tested him, and he has no objection."
He looked at Zhao Kai again and continued: "As for you saying that he is here to negotiate peace..."
Emperor Yongping snorted coldly: "I don't think that's possible. If you really came to seek peace, how could you not even give me your credentials after meeting me?"
The emperor glared at Zhao Kai angrily.
"That's all, I won't argue with you for now. I'll wait until I read the contents of the Southern Dynasty's credentials before I tell you, lest you complain in your heart that I've wronged you."
Emperor Yongping waved his hand as he hated iron for not becoming steel.
"I asked you to supervise the battle along the Huaihe River, and you became like this!"
At this time, His Highness King Wei felt aggrieved.
"Father, the battle was fought by General Zhou..."
When Emperor Yongping heard this, he shook his head and sighed: "That's it, just go down."
Zhao Kai kowtowed to the emperor and left the Nuan Pavilion in embarrassment. I don't know whether it was because it was too hot in the Nuan Pavilion or because he was nervous. When he walked out of the Nuan Pavilion, Prince Wei's back was already wet with sweat.
That night, a piece of white paper was handed to the emperor's desk.
On the white paper, the contents of Nanchen Guoshu were transcribed.
Ever since Emperor Yongping fell ill, he had slept very late at night in the past two years, and would not go to bed until after midnight, so the piece of paper was seen by Emperor Yongping almost immediately.
That night, after seeing the contents of this piece of paper, His Majesty the Emperor, who was already in his fifties, almost died of coughing on his bed.
In the end, only one sentence remained out of a thousand words.
"Cc to Prince Wei's Mansion..."
………………
Also on this night, in Li Mu's room at the Rites Hall, a thin scholar who was not very senior and was sitting quietly opposite Li Mu, lowered his head and said: "Master, the younger one is also from Jiankang.
Speaking of which, we are still from the same hometown."
Li Mu was also looking at the young man in front of him. This young man only came to his door after he arrived in Yandu.
When he arrived, he spoke a strong northern dialect, but because of an inconspicuous letter stamp in his hand, Li Mu still saw him.
"You say you are from Jiankang, but you speak Xuzhou dialect."
The prince looked at him quietly and asked, "How do you explain?"
"If you don't speak Xuzhou dialect, you won't be able to get along."
The young man looked reserved and whispered a few sentences in Jiankang dialect.
After proving his identity, the man lowered his head slightly and said: "Master, I am from Di Bao Si. A few years ago, I went to Northern Qi to work under Si Zheng's order. Now I am openly identified as a person from Xuzhou.
They also took the road from Xuzhou to Yandu."
Li Mu was thoughtful.
"Since the Di News Department sent you to Northern Qi, it means there must be something important for you to do. Why are you so reckless and come looking for me?"
"Si Zheng gave orders, I dare not not come."
The man looked up at Li Mu and said, "The prince should have met Emperor Qi Ren today, right?"
"Yes, I see you."
The man from the Di newspaper department lowered his head slightly and said: "Now, I am afraid that the contents of the credentials brought by the Crown Prince have already been placed on the desk of Emperor Qi Ren."
Li Mu thought for a while.
When he entered the palace during the day, he did bring his credentials into the palace. It was not surprising that he was stared at by the Qi people, so he nodded lightly and said: "It stands to reason that when I was on the way, the contents of this credentials
It should have fallen on Emperor Yongping's desk. If he didn't see it until today, then the Qingjing Department of the Northern Qi Dynasty would be nothing more than that."
"After Emperor Qi Ren sees the contents of the credentials, if he is not ready to fall out immediately, then..."
"I will probably put you under house arrest, Crown Prince."
The man lowered his head and said: "Besides, no one from the Northern Qi Emperor or ministers met with the Crown Prince. They just assumed that the Crown Prince had never been to Yandu."
Hearing this sentence, Li Mu was horrified.
He woke up with a start.
That's right! Changing places, if he were the emperor of Northern Qi, and on the premise that he no longer wanted to fight, the only way to deal with this credential would be to treat it coldly!
Pretend it has never happened or seen!
From now on, he will not be able to see the Emperor of Northern Qi, or even the ministers of Northern Qi. He will be locked up in an inconspicuous courtyard until the relationship between the two countries reaches an inflection point again.
Li Mu frowned, looked at the person in front of him, and said slowly: "What did your family Si Zheng say?"
"What Si Zheng means is that we, the people, will help the Crown Prince disseminate the contents of the credential within the territory of Northern Qi."
"In this way, even if the prince's errand is completed, he will not be imprisoned again."
"However, the prince himself may be in some dangers."
The man from the Di newspaper office lowered his head and said, "Si Zheng said that this is the best way for the Crown Prince at the moment."